Govt checklist for city schools’ safety

New Delhi: In the wake of the brutal killing of a Class 2 student in a Gurgaon school, the Delhi government has issued a 117-point checklist to city schools for ensuring student safety in their premises.

The checklist includes everything from toilets to cyber security and encapsulates the minimum standard of school safety.

Among the points listed are school safety committees and monthly safety walks to identify loopholes in the security in the premises, securing boundary walls with grills, surveillance by CCTV cameras, maintaining records of every entry into the school and restricting visitors.

According to the new guidelines, all toilets should be well lit and have easy release lock from inside and no lock on the outside. The Delhi government has also warned that there would be “zero tolerance” for violation of any norms.

There should be no deployment of male staff in toilets for primary classes and all toilet visits of students up to Class 2 should be surpervised by a lady caretaker, according to the guidelines.

The decision was taken by the government after the murder of Ryan International student Class 2 student Pradyuman Thakur and the rape of a minor girl by a school attendant in Delhi, officials said.

The guidelines have been issued to all schools in the national capital. The government has also directed that prior written consent be sought from parents for allowing children to stay back post-school hours and co-curricular activities held beyond school timings be supervised by at least two teachers

Visits to laboratories, sports room, auditorium, library, computer room, gymnasium and assembly hall among others should be under direct supervision of relevant teachers.

The Delhi schools have also been asked to ensure cyber security in accordance with existing cyber and Information and Technology laws.

These norms include installation of firewall, filtering and monitoring mechanisms in all computers in the school premises, regular review of filtering and blocking policies and ensure that children use computers only under the supervision of teachers.

“Practicability of implementation and monitoring has been kept in mind, while preparing the check list,” an official of directorate of education said.